The federal government has cut three quarters of the University of the Arctic’s budget, forcing the organization to scale down its operations in Canada.

The online university was created in 2001 and has more than 120 institutions across the circumpolar world, 33 of which are in Canada. It has had more than 10,000 registrations for its courses since 2002.

The federal government has not released information on the reason for the cuts.

The Canadian military will have to look to commercial contractors and possibly even exchanges with the Americans in order to sustain itself when forces are built up in the country’s far North, a series of internal Defence Department documents show.

All three branches - the navy, air force and army - have begun to grapple with the specifics of the enormous, logistical challenge presented by the Harper government’s Arctic policies.

Documents dating back to 2008 suggest the annual operating cost could run between $843 million and $1 billion.